Rodney J. Reynolds:
A Cold War Politician
of Nevada in the Fifties
Interviewee: Rodney J. Reynolds
Interviewed: 1977
Published: 1977
Interviewer: Bruce Walker Reynolds
UNOHP Catalog #073
Description
Rodney J. Reynolds was born on July 31, 1912, in Currie, Nevada. The settlement consisted of a one-room school
house, a freight house, and a combination general store, post office, meeting place, and saloon. There were also
three homes, one of which was uninhabited, and six families lived in the surrounding area.
Reynolds spent nine years in Currie, but his parents knew there were no grand opportunities in Currie and that it
was no place to raise a family. The family moved to Elko, a large and bustling community of eighteen hundred, in
the fall of 1921. Elko was the county seat, the division point for the Western Pacific, and the ranching center for
northern Nevada. His father opened a meat market, bought a house, and Reynolds began his first real education
at the Elko Grammar School. He finished his secondary education under the tutelage of the well-known educator
Miss Knemeyer, and was graduated from Elko County High School with a diploma in science.
The rumblings of the Depression had not yet been felt in Elko when Reynolds left home to attend the Carnegie
Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Depression caused his father to lose his business, and
Reynolds was forced to return home after only one year of college. The Depression had great consequences for his
future life.
In the thirties Reynolds held a multitude of short run-jobs: tank truck diver, surveyor, and procurement clerk for
the Civilian Conservation Corps restoring Fort Churchill. As a young man he witnessed the revolution of American
ideals in Roosevelts New Deal policies. In the ensuing years this was to make as great an impression upon him as
the Depression.
He married Margaret Ellen Walker of Sparks in 1937, and moved to Reno. He bought the Silver State Lodge, a motel
built in the twenties for the divorce trade. The motel was located on old Highway 40—now West Fourth Street. He
owned and operated the Silver State Lodge for twenty-six years.
During World War II Reynolds worked as a flight dispatcher for Pan-American Airways in the South Pacific on
the islands of Funafuti, Wallis, and Canton. He returned to Reno in 1945 after the war and established himself as
a businessman and civic leader. He joined the Rotary Club, was membership chairman and later became director
of the Reno Chamber of Commerce. Reynolds was elected twice to the state assembly as a Republican in 1952 and
1954. He was a keen observer of Nevada cold war politics, which he describes in his oral history.
Rodney J. Reynolds:
A Cold War Politician
of Nevada in the Fifties
Rodney J. Reynolds:
A Cold War Politician
of Nevada in the Fifties
Bruce Reynolds produced this oral history as a student in the
University of Nevada, Reno, 1977 Summer Session course,
“Oral History: Method and Technique.” Mr. Reynolds is a student in
HISTORY AT SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA.
An Oral History Conducted by Bruce Walker Reynolds
University of Nevada Oral History Program
Copyright 1977
University of Nevada Oral History Program
Mail Stop 0324
Reno, Nevada 89557
unohp @unr. edu
http: / / www. unr. edu/ oralhistory
All rights reserved. Published 1977.
Printed in the United States of America
Publication Staff:
Director: Mary Ellen Glass
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Contents
Preface to the Digital Edition ix
Introduction ix
A Cold War Politician of Nevada in the Fifties 1
Original Index: For Reference Only 29
Preface to the Digital Edition
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X
Rodney J. Reynolds
same prudence that the intelligent reader
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Alicia Barber
Director, UNOHP
July 2012
Introduction
Earl Gilson Reynolds, a native of Putnam
County Ohio, brought his new bride, Anna
Leona Kimmerle, to Currie, Nevada, in
March of’ 1907. Currie, a railroad depot
for the Nevada Northern, halfway between
Cobre and Ely, or this side of nowhere, was
the birthplace of’ Rodney J. Reynolds. The
settlement — it can hardly be described
as anything else — consisted of a one-
room school house, a freight house, and
a combination general store, post office,
meeting place, saloon. There were also three
homes, one of which was uninhabited. Six
families lived in the surrounding area when
on his mother’s birthday, July 31, 1912,
Rodney Reynolds was born.
He spent nine long, dry, dusty years
in Currie enjoying his backyard which
stretched out as far as the eye could see, the
four burros which his father had bought
from a bankrupt miner, and the occasional
voyage to a lonely isolated cattle ranch.
His parents knew there were no grand
opportunities in Currie and that it was no
place to raise a family.
The Reynolds family moved to Elko, an
incredibly large and bustling community of
1,800 by the standards of Currie, in the fall of
1921. Elko, then as now, was the county seat,
division point for the Western Pacific, and
the ranching center for Northern Nevada.
His father opened a meat market, bought
a house, and Rodney began his first real
education at the new Elko Grammar School.
With ten rooms and two hundred students
ranging from grades one through eight, the
new school was overwhelming to a youngster
whose previous education had consisted of a
one-room school house with the maximum
number of students leveling off at eight. But
Rodney gradually adapted to city life and
became engrossed in the spirit of a small
northern Nevada town.
He finished his secondary education
under the tutelage of the well known educator,
Miss Knemyer, and was graduated from
Elko County High School with a diploma in
science.
The rumblings of the depression had
not yet been felt in Elko when Rodney left
Rodney J. Reynolds
xii
home to attend the Carnegie Institute of
Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The
depression had begun in Pittsburgh in 1930.
Unemployed steel workers in toeless shoes
selling government bought apples for 5$ a
piece was a daily reality for him, not a myth
of the newspapers.
By this time the insipid tentacles of the
depression had reached even as far as Elko.
His father lost his business, and Rodney was
forced to return home after only one year of
college education, his only year. He repeats
again and again in the dialog that follows how
great the consequence of the depression was
upon him, his future, his life.
In the thirties Rodney held a multitude
of short run jobs: tank truck diver,
surveyor, procurement clerk for the Civilian
Conservation Corps restoring Fort Churchill.
As a young man he witnesses the revolution
of American ideals in Roosevelts New Deal
policies. And in the ensuing years this was
to make as great an image upon him as the
depression.
He married Margaret Ellen Walker of
Sparks in 1937, moved to Reno, and bought
the Silver State Lodge, a motel built in the
twenties for the divorce trade. The motel was
located on old Highway 40 to San Francisco:
it’s now West Fourth Street. He was to own
and operate the Silver State Lodge for the next
twenty-six years.
World War II intervened in the forties, and,
with a paramilitary position, Rodney worked
as a flight dispatcher in the South Pacific on
the now forgotten islands of Funafuti Wallis,
and Canton for Pan American Airways. He
returned to Reno in 1945 after the war.
Approaching early middle age, his
views on politics had been molded by the
depression, the New Deal, and a world war.
He established himself as a businessman and
civic leader in Reno. He joined the Rotary
Club, was membership chairman and later
director of the Reno Chamber of Commerce,
and was finally elected to the state assembly
as a Republican in 1952. He was a cold war
politician.
Senator Joe McCarthy, the John Birch
Society, the elusive communist threat, and
those other fleeting, transparent organizations
of thought all manifested themselves in his
politics. In the 46th and 47th sessions of the
legislature, education was the primary issue
and the financing of education the greater
part of that issue. Public spending, more
taxes, a larger and increasingly complex
bureaucracy would create strenuous conflicts
with a conservative businessman from Reno.
Nevada witnessed unprecedented growth and
change in the fifties, and Rodney J. Reynolds
was there.
Bruce Walker Reynolds
July, 1977
A Cold War Politician
of Nevada in the Fifties
Bruce Walker Reynolds: Dad, lets start off with
Elko in the thirties and your early political
development. Who were some of the major
political figures in Elko at that time?
Rodney J. Reynolds: Well, I wasn’t very
knowledgeable state-wise then, for I was
eighteen years old. But my neighbor was John
E. Robbins who had long been senator, state
senator from Elko County, a close friend of
mine. He was conscious of my inability to
get a job during the depression, and, in fact,
I approached him about it several times. One
thing led to another, and he did finally land
me a job in Reno with the State Park Service,
emergency conservation work under one of
Roosevelt’s original government spending
programs. We had a CCC camp operating at
Fort Churchill with the restoration of the old
camp walls of the old fort there. I was hired as
a procurement clerk there for the Reno office
to buy all the merchandise, tools, and so forth
for that camp. That was my introduction to
government work.
Was unemployment high in Nevada during
the depression?
Oh yes, tremendously so, particularly
so in Elko County where the sheep men
and cattle men had been so incredibly so
hard hit. We had a couple of hard winters
on top of it arid the railroads of Elko being
the Western Pacific terminal, the Western
Pacific was extremely hard hit not being a
transcontinental railroad like the Southern
Pacific it was hurt worse than most railroads.
So, they curtailed operations greatly and
many WP railroaders living in Elko were out
of work. The competition was pretty tough
for a young eighteen to twenty year old.
What were these CCC camps like?
Well, the CCC, Civilian Conservation
Corps, the full term for them was a program
envisioned in Washington, to bring the youth
off the streets from the big cities: particularly
out in the West, all over the country, but
2
Rodney J. Reynolds
mainly in the West to give them a new
insight in life, a little change of scenery It was
patterned off the army operation, the army
camps, with more lax, more lenient rules to
live by But they received their board and
room and lived in the camps much in army
style. They wore khakis, army style clothes,
and they were in groups of around two to
three hundred that would constitute a camp
There were many in Nevada. I just happened
to be associated with the one at Fort Churchill.
There were a couple operating out of Vegas and
a couple operating out of Reno, and I think Ely
and Elko to. But I was procurement clerk for
the state park service and Fort Churchill had
been declared a state park. They had petitioned
for federal funds to rebuild and formalize the
old ruins that were at Fort Churchill as a state
park. And my job was a desk job working in
an office which happened to be a spare office
in the district highway offices of the Nevada
State Highway Department because Robert
Allen who was state highway engineer who
was also head of the state park service at the
time. The State Park Service being a nebulous
thing in this state during those years; just
getting started. It later became a more massive
organization and had its own head, entirely
separate from the highway department. But
through that connection I then gravitated to
the highway department. When Fort Churchill
was completed in the fall, the CCC camp was
closed because it was a winter it was a winter
camp. It was strictly a summer camp. The boys
were dispersed and sent other places; many
of them, I guess, went home to school. The
procurement office was shut down in Reno
and I had to move on. And through Mr. Allen
— he was very gracious and got me a job, and
took me to work at the highway department,
on the survey crews. Then followed four of
five years where I worked for the highway
department.
Who was governor at the time of these CCC
camps; wasn’t it Richard Kirman?
Well, let’s see, the governor— Dick
Kirman was governor. When I was at the
highway department and I think he was
governor during my term with the State Park
Service. He was a Democrat, Robert Allen
my good friend was a Democrat arid so
was Jack Robbins in Elko. Jack Robbins was
Democratic chairman for Elko County and a
state Senator, so here I was a Republican from
a Republican family making the most from a
Democratic regime. But I enjoyed the work,
and it was good for me to get away from home,
away from the parents and out on my own
since I couldn’t return to college. So it was
good that I got into work in the government.
How well did you know Judge Milton and Mrs.
Gertrude Badt? In Elko at this time that is
Well, Judge Badt was another politician,
you might say, but in the judiciary rather than
in the executive or legislative branches. He
was serving as a private practicing attorney
in Elko when I knew him. They lived across
the street from my parents home where I
lived-1 got to know them very well, through
that relationship, I did much work in their
yard shoveled snow for them in the winter,
and that sort of thing. Mrs. Badt had been
my teacher in high school. She had been my
English teacher, before she was married to
Judge Badt. Her name was Miss Nitze, a very
excellent highly intelligent woman and an
excellent teacher. I was very fond of her and
I became very fond of Judge Badt too.
Was Elko County at this time mostly Republican?
Yes, Elko county was a Republican county
per Se, though there was a strong Democratic
A Cold War Politician of Nevada in the Fifties
3
implication through the county from the
railroads; because they were labor union
people. There was always a contest in the city
of Elko between the Republicans and the
Democrats. Most of the businessmen being
Republicans and most of the labor people
of course Democratic. County wide, I think,
the Democrats were outnumbered. It was
essentially county— but those agricultural
counties are inclined to look at the man
rather than the party. Jack Robbins was an
excellent senator, he understood Nevada, he
was born and reared in the state, loyal to it,
and widely accepted as a Democrat. He was
a conservative Democrat by the way.
Were there any strikes in Elko at this time ? In
other words was there organized labor ?
There had been a severe strike at the WP
Yards previous to the IWW days. It was pretty
stringent with beatings and fist fights and so
forth. But there were no labor problems there
during the depression to speak of. It was no
time to strike. The union knew they had no
power, and industry was just shutting down,
and there was nothing that could be done
about it. It was a just a collapse of industry
and employment both. It was a world wide
phenomena at that time too.
So you went on from working at the highway
department to Reno in 1936.
No, no I came to Reno with the state
park job in 1934.1 had worked with the U.S.
Geological survey right there at Elko for a
couple of summers prior to that just part
time work on the survey crew. But I came to
Reno with the state park service and found
perpetual employment thereafter the year
round. Having up the idea of going back to
school completely, I knew I had to work, so
I came to Reno in ’34 and have worked here
ever since you. might say.
Bruce, I would like to make a few remarks
about the depression because I am of an age
where there are only a few of us left that went
through the depression. The great depression
of the thirties and it was an awesome thing—
the world and this country had never
seen anything like it— before wherein the
government seemed to be sound, the money
seemed to be sound and yet industry seemed
to be shutting down, millionaires were
becoming paupers, overnight through the loss
of stock in the stock markets, the stock market
had collapsed, the banks were closed. And it
was truly an awesome time for a young man
my age. It has left fixed impressions, some of
course I will never forget, and I suppose it has
molded my career and character considerably,
because I was so stunned. With older people
admitting that they had never seen anything
like it before, prices were ridiculously low, I
remember that eggs were five and ten cents
a dozen, bread was five cents a loaf. I can
remember my mother and my father getting
together and trading one-half a ton of coal
to a farmer for one half a side of pig. And my
mother would take that pork, and cut it up,
and make everything out of it that she could
think of. There was considerable bartering
going on it was truly an awesome time. Many,
many young men would not get to college. If
they didn’t have a college in their town I would
say none did go off to college except a few of
the people who had good jobs, that were able
to carry through. Only their children got away
to college, as cheap as college was, in these
days. And it’s a fact that it tends to affect a
persons life ever after, seeing such an awesome
thing as that. Because I remember I had been
in college in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania the
winter before, to see those men in the streets
peddling apples with the toes out of their
4
Rodney J. Reynolds
shoes, in sub zero weather, selling the apples
at five cents a piece.... I believe the city had
bought and purchased the apples for them,
and them to them, and we all ate apples out
of charity, trying to help these people, it was
truly an awesome sight. Pittsburgh was no
place for a young man in 1930-31 I’ll tell you.
Lets jump ahead a bit, with your working on the
Nevada State Highway Department crew, you
were on the construction crew of the highway
from Winnemucca to McDermitt in 1938 is
that correct?
My first assignment was with the resident
engineer, named A1 Kidding, whose folks
had been close friends with my folks, whom
I knew well. He had been with the highway
department many years. I had been assigned
to his survey crew on a construction job from
Winnemucca to McDermitt, specifically,
Paradise Hill to Orovada, which was under
way at the moment.
What was the road like before you worked on it?
It was strictly a country road meandering
through the sage brush trees and rocks.
The highway department came along and
straightened it out, and engineered it properly
and put in the proper drainage. But it still
continued to be a narrow two lane road by
present standards. At first it was graveled with
three quarter inch size gravel and then it was
oiled, a few years later. This would be in the
winter of 1933 or 1934.
In 1938 you quit the highway department and
you began work with the Soil Conservation
Service; what did this consist of?
Well, by this time I had been married
to Margaret Walker of Sparks, and we were
expecting our first baby, your older sister Pat. I
knew the highway department had been good
to me and I enjoyed the work tremendously.
But the salary schedule at one hundred and
twenty a month was not adequate to support
a family. By this time the country was starting
to come out of the depression, starting to
stabilize, and industry was starting to liven
up a bit. I thought I could do better on my
own I could certainly make one hundred and
twenty dollars a month. I quit the highway
department, having been on the highway
department five years. I thought I could run
my own crew and the Soil Conservation
Service was advertising for resident surveyors
and civil engineers to do some soil studies
in the Smith Valley area. I took a job with
them knowing it would be only temporary
and it only lasted about six months. But I
ran a survey crew there for about six months
making a topographic map and some other
survey connections.
You eventually moved to Reno in the fall of
1938 and bought the Silver State Lodge.
Yes, it was obvious to me as I spent my
many hours along the highways of the state
working for the highway department that
the tourist business was picking up. My folks
had gotten into a modest old camp ground
operation in Elko. In visiting them I would
notice the tourist influx. They were housing
these tourists. I could see a potential for the
tourist industry in the future, as cars picked
up, as we were building these roads, building
and improving them, that people would be
able to travel easier, faster, cheaply and safely
and there should be considerably more travel
than we had ever seen in America in the
west. I think I did have vision in that respect.
Well, many others did too, and I felt I could
take a chance as a young man on an opening
A Cold War Politician of Nevada in the Fifties
5
of a motel or some business, catering to the
tourist, and it seemed to me that the motel
business was the best. So, I came to Reno and
got into contact with my folks to see if I could
get some financial help from them. They were
digging out of the depression a bit by that time
and through a family arrangement we did
purchase what was known as the Silver State
Lodge, 17901 West Fourth Street, in Reno. It
was on the main road to San Francisco, which
was one of the hottest tourist roads in the
state. I was there twenty-five years and I did
very well. It wound up rather disastrously, but
your mother and I enjoyed many good years
there. I worked awfully hard, many hours, it
was very confining, but it was lucrative.
Were most of the people staying therefrom the
divorce trade or were they strictly tourists?
Well, the institution we had bought had
been aimed originally at the divorce trade in
the late twenties and early thirties, because
that had been one of Nevada’s key industries
at the time. It was pushed strongly in the early
years of the depression to compensate for
the other losses. The Nevada legislature had
instituted the six week residency for divorce
which made it agreeable to people back east
particularly New York and Philadelphia and
the other big cities, to come to Reno. They did,
and they started flocking here and there were
many dude ranches and guest houses and
even hotels aimed at this tourist trade. Both
men and women came here for six weeks and
moved on. The attorneys were all of course in
the business. So the institution I had bought
had been aimed at that period. But by the
time I bought it in the fall of 1938 the tourist
business, the transient tourist, had become
more popular and prominent. This facet of
the housing industry was sort of easing off a
bit. The Silver State, which had been aimed at
the divorce trade, with individual units and
house keeping accommodations we converted
into a motel. We more or less abolished the
kitchens and converted them into bedrooms
and we reoriented the thing into overnight
transient accommodations.
We have to jump quite a ways, skip World War
11, and now I would like to talk about Reno
in 1946, post World War IIyears, you were a
member of the Reno Rotary Club at that time.
I joined in 1946 when I came back from
the war.
Who were some of the leading members of the
Rotary Club, the leading business men?
Well, of course, the bankers are always
considered the leading businessmen. Harold
Gorman was a member of the club and I had
known him, Forest Lovelock was one of our
more prominent automobile dealers, Marsh
Johnson was the Chevrolet dealer, Lovelock
had the Ford dealership, members of the
club, the Southworths, Southworth Tobacco
Company, all of the old business hands of
Reno who were popular downtown operators,
belonged to Rotary and I was asked to join. I
thought it was a fine thing to do, and I have
always enjoyed it.
Post World War II Reno politics: was Reno
really the center of the political situation of
the state?
Yes, Vegas was getting started everybody
could see that there was going to be a future
in Las Vegas by virtue of the huge Basic
Magnesium plant that had been out in
Henderson, down there in World War II.
With the completion, of course of Boulder
Dam during the late thirties, and with the
6
Rodney J. Reynolds
combination of these two, everybody could
see that Vegas was going to be something.
But as of yet, Vegas had not arrived and Reno
was still definitely the political center of the
state. The cow counties would furnish some
of the opposition, but generally they were
in harmony with Reno’s politics. Reno was
a Republican community, it was the finance
center of the state, the leading banks were
centered here, most of the lawyers of the state
were centered here, in Reno. The judicial
system was centered here, of course Carson
City the state capitol only thirty miles away
had long made Reno prominent in politics.
Who were some of the moneyed interests in
Reno in the forties?
Well, I think the Wingfields despite the
fact that they had taken a terrible shellacking
during the depression.
How did this come about?
Well, Wingfield owned most of the banks
in Nevada. The Wingfield banks, there was
a chain of them... He had one in practically
every town of the state, they collapsed during
the depression, not through poor banking
particularly but through... but because
banking at that time was not controlled as it
is now. They loaned rather liberally to their
friends, to business interests and when prices
just collapsed, so severely they just collapsed
with them. But they survived with some of
their funds and they had gotten into a gold
mine, the Getchell mine. Noble Getchell
and George Wingfield were partners in the
Getchell mine north of Winnemucca. They
hit it rich there during the war and right
afterward. Just before the war and during
the war they made millions out of that mine.
That was a peculiar mine. The mine started
out as a gold strike, it was very lucrative and
the war came on. Roosevelt shut down gold
production, because they couldn’t afford
the miners to be mining gold. They needed
industrial metafiles and here along side of’
the gold deposit they had a tungsten deposit.
They just switched their mill and it became
a tungsten producer, during the war and
after. They continued to make money. The
Wingfields, George senior was in his—,
an older man at this time. He owned the
Riverside hotel and much other property. He
was one of the leading elder statesman, one
might say, of an older finance advisor for
the state. His young son George had started
following in his fathers footsteps, in managing
the hotel. They were members of the Rotary
Club and I knew young George very well, I
knew the father slightly.
From your knowledge at that time were they,
so to speak kingmakers in the state of Nevada?
Were they controlling politicians of any sort, or
helping finance election campaigns?
They were keenly interested in politics
and political candidates, but I wouldn’t say
they were controlling it. During the epic
of the Wingfields demise, not death but
retrenchment, another family...
What is this that you are speaking of ?
Well during the depression. Another
personality had come to Reno who had
married into the Chase Manhattan Bank of
New York, named Norman Biltz. After a few
years of endearing himself to the community
and with the huge fortune behind him I would
say that after the war Norman Biltz became
the key political kingmaker of the state. I use
that word reluctantly, because I knew Norman
very well I had many, many meetings with
A Cold War Politician of Nevada in the Fifties
7
him and almost got into business with him
once. He was very discreet and subtle about
it, but he did have tremendous, influence he
was keenly interested in Nevada politics. He
was a conservative and followed closely the
Republican tenets. All in all, he was good for
the community and good for the state. He
helped me politically, I think, and I know he
helped many other men.
Were George Wingfield, Noble Getchell and
finally Norman Biltz, were they working for or
against Governor Vail Pittman?
I think that they all tolerated Vail
Pittman, he was a state personality here, he
had a newspaper over in Ely prior to his
governorship, and he was the brother of our
famous senator Key Pittman. Key had long
been a figure dominant in the politics of
Nevada and although he was a Democrat, he
was conservative...With the mining interests
he espoused Nevada interests really well in
Washington. He had been there so long, he
had become president pro tern of the senate
and had tremendous power in Washington.
I think he approved of president Roosevelt...
because of his position in the senate. So we
had this Pittman family, a strong political
hierarchy and I think the Wingfields and
Biltz went along. Although the Wingfields
were registered as Republicans and Biltz was
a registered as a Democrat, it was possible that
Norman was closer to the Pittmans, than were
the Wingfields, who were ebbing off anyway
in politics, George senior being an old man. I
would say that George junior never quite filled
the bill that his dad did. might add that I really
truly believed that Norman Biltz was a little
disappointed in Vail Pittman. He was not that
astute, knowledgeable, polished politician
that his brother Key was. I personally had a
couple of run-ins with Vail Pittman. I found
the man rather naive, bigoted, and extremely
prejudiced. However he was a loyal Nevadan.
When and where did these conversations with
Vail Pittman take place?
I don’t recall now what the issues were;
I believe one had to do with public housing.
I was in the housing business at the motel;
we did much rental business in the winter
time and with the tourists in the summer.
Vail, I believe, was helping institute some
public housing... No, that may not have been
the issue. I was becoming prominent in the
Reno Chamber of Commerce. This is right
after WWII. I finally went to work with the
Chamber of Commerce as a membership
director even though I was still running the
motel. I had a little extra time; I was stumping
for a greater Reno Chamber of Commerce to
really put Reno on the map. We had a thriving
community and it needed some leadership,
business-wise, and we felt that the Chamber
of Commerce was the medium to do that. So
many of QS joined together and upped our
dues tenfold over what they had been in the
past. We raised several thousand dollars.
Who is we?
Oh, the leading businessmen, the leading
contractors, the power company, the bankers,
and the hotel people. We all could see that
Reno needed some leadership to give some
advice to the city council, to give some help
to the county commissioners, to help make
decisions. There was no medium to which
they could turn for committee studies, and
the Chamber of Commerce took it upon
themselves to make these studies of the future
tourist business and what we should have and
literally demanded...more hotels to house the
people. We encouraged the power company
8
Rodney J. Reynolds
to expand so that we could continue to have
plenty of cheap power to let business expand,
and I became prominent in that movement.
Some of that fell counter to some of the state
government concepts through Vail Pittman.
Prior to WWII the Reno Chamber of Commerce
was rather a weak or informal body?
Prior to the war it had rather been a
watchdog over railroad rates to see that we
weren’t getting cheated on railroad rates, and
we had a man who was a rate specialist, Ed
Walker, a fine old gentleman and an expert
in his field which was rate structures and
that was important. But with the tourist
business coming on our new highways
and the aviation industry booming along,
we needed a new airport, we needed some
refinements in town that Ed Walker couldn’t
handle. So we expanded the Chamber,
hired a new manager who was an ex-airline
operator. By the way Bill Brussard had been
United Airlines agent in Reno and was very
conscious of the tourist business. They got
him to take the managership of the Chamber,
and he in turn asked me to be his membership
director. I helped them for a year. We naturally
gravitated into political conflicts with the
city, the county commissioners, and the state
government because of some of the ideas we
had. All in all it was an amicable thing; it was
rapid growth, and there is always stress and
strain in a situation like that.
How influential was Pat McCarran in Reno
at this time?
Pat McCarran was the counterpart of
Key Pittman. When Key Pittman passed
out of the picture as an old man, and he
was twenty years older than Pat McCarran,
I think Pat McCarran filled the bill, and he
became a power in Washington. Pat was
considered a wild jackass in politics, and he
went on a tangent. He was an individualist,
he was a Catholic, he hated the communist-
socialist movement, and he got himself
deeply involved there. The Walter-McCarran
Immigration Act was one of the results of his
efforts in Washington, and it was a very fine
piece of legislation in my opinion. He was also
a member of the senate internal securities
committee and lid some prominent work
there investigating the communist ties you
will recall right after the war with Russia.
I think he was highly respected by the
average citizen, though few knew him. He
was not a man who spent much time on the
street. He worked through his henchmen,
his political colleagues, and lower echelon
operators.
We were talking about Senator Pat McCarran.
Yes, I was saying I didn’t know Pat
McCarran myself very well; although, I had
met him myself on half a dozen occasions.
He was not a man you would quietly sit down
and visit hour after hour; he was a nervous
type. He always had another meeting to
go to or something else to do. But he was
certainly a power in Washington. He gave
Franklin Roosevelt a real bad time, and I
personally approved of his philosophies,
almost completely. He was a Democrat
and I would find him slipping off into the
Democratic machine quite often in order
to enhance his next election, but once he
was elected you could rest assured he was
back on the conservative side and defending
America and business and the farm people,
the mining people, the ranching people. He
was a good supporter and a real power in
Washington. Nevada was lucky to have a man
of that stature, and he was responsible for a
A Cold War Politician of Nevada in the Fifties
9
few pieces of legislation that would ride in
Washington for a few years to come.
At this time we have a movement politically
that was called the Young Turk Movement.
What do you know of this and who were the
major figures in the movement?
This was a group of young people who
had returned from the war and had ideas
of their own; some of them were members
of this Chamber of Commerce movement
like I was. But it was felt that the Republican
party had fallen into the hands of remnants of
this Getchell-Wingfield clique and people of
that type who were getting old. And we had
a Democratic governor and a Democratic
senator, Pat McCarran, and it was time that
we got a Republican back in Washington, and
Cliff Young became one of the Young Turks.
He was a young lawyer in town. Les Gray who
was basically a Democrat in my opinion, his
family was, became a Republican though, and
he was part of the Young Turk Movement.
There were many fine people, but I never
espoused to their philosophy too much. They
were a little bit on the liberal side; they were
young people; they were not business people;
they were politicians and lawyers and people
on the fringes of business. And I was never
a definite part of the Young Turk Movement.
While it had certain aspects that I did agree
with, I didn’t fall in with them too much.
I was in business and was associating with
businessmen, and Nevada was growing in the
business world. I wanted it to stay growing in
a business way, not the socialist way.
So, are you tying the Young Turk Movement
to socialism?
Somewhat. It was never openly revealed to
be that, but I think many of the key figures in
the Young Turk Movement were pretty liberal
in their philosophy, if the truth were known.
Liberal in what sense in Reno in 1950?
In that they were welfare orientated and
felt that the income tax would be probably
a good thing. They were for more public
spending on the public education system.
They were espousing federal help which the
country was starting to become accustomed
to, and, instead of trying to shut it off after the
war like most of us Republican businessmen
were trying to do, they wanted to extend it
and to continue it. Many of those emergency
programs during the depression and during
the war years when we were a nation at war
had been temporary pieces of legislation given
to the congress and to the president. We felt
that the war was over and it was time to shut
these off and abolish them, but the Young
Turk Movement was for a continuation of
them. And this was where I parted with them
mainly.
Who was their leader?
Well, I wouldn’t say that it was one
individual. There were the Young Democrats
in the Democratic party, so they felt there
should be the Young Republicans in the
Republican party; I’ve named two, Cliff Young
and Les Gray. There were many others...
Several attorneys... Les Fry... People who are
still present in Reno... Good people... I don’t
say they weren’t good people... Just that they
were of that philosophy, liberal philosophy.
So in 1952 we see your entry into politics, the
legislative race.
This was an outgrowth of my Chamber
of Commerce associations and the Rotary
10
Rodney J. Reynolds
Club and the Motel Association. I had
become prominent in the motel business in
the state and having been a local president,
state president, and finally a director of the
National Motel Association — on the board
of governors — and, since our state was so
tourist orientated, it was natural that a man
deeply involved in the tourist industry would
gravitate toward the legislature to support
things that were conducive to the tourist
industry Then I found much strong support
for my candidacy
Who were some of’ the other candidates that
you ran against in the legislative race of 1952?
There were many young men around
town. The Nevada State Legislature seems to
attract young men. The older businessmen
are too busy to serve, so they encourage
young businessmen in the Republican party.
I think we had a slate of eight Republicans
each time. Eight Republicans run against eight
Democrats and that was the general election
race. You want the name of’ some of the other
Democrats?
Or Republicans.
I would be hard put to remember those
who were not elected.
How well did you know figures such as Leslie
Lerude?
Leslie Lerude was a registered Republican
although he had been a labor union organizer
in his younger days. He ran a restaurant
in town, the Wigwam Coffee Shop which
became a famous little restaurant in Reno. I
got to know him very well; he was elected the
same time I was. I think the second time also.
He and I got along very well until we came
to some labor legislation that I would oppose
him on.
How about Herbert L. Covington?
Covington was a labor man, a Democrat
from Sparks, and he and I were about 180
degrees apart at all times.
How about Clarence Ruedy?
Clarence Ruedy was a fellow Republican, a
fine old gentleman, much older. He had been
in the legislature previously and was quite
knowledgeable. He was a good conservative
Republican, arid it was a pleasure to work with
him.
What were some of the issues at this time? The
major issues that candidates were running on
in 1952?
Now we are talking about 1953, and,
up to this time, here, we had been through
the depression and through the war. We
still had on the books in Nevada very little
new legislation to counter, help, or offset the
rapid growth we were having. It was obvious
to everybody that some major changes
were going to have to be made in the state
government and the laws of the state in order
to accommodate this rapid growth. First the
growth was exceeding the tax structure. The
growth always moves in before the tax base
comes up; it takes several years for the tax
base to reflect rapid growth. The property tax
was not able to carry the necessary burden
of state government, so they had to turn to
gambling. Well, gambling prior to the war
had not been such a great thing in the state,
and the entertainment angle of gambling
had not been here at all. So following the
war there were a couple of new hotels going
A Cold War Politician of Nevada in the Fifties
11
up in Vegas, and Vegas was starting to
show its head. Now in Reno we had nearly
more people than we had slot machines
and tables to accommodate them, so they
started to tax gambling, to modify the rules
and regulations, to make it easier to open a
gaming establishment. This put considerable
burden on the city councils and the county
commissioners to police and organize the
areas in which gambling would be held. So
the state was constantly upping the gambling
tax. And it appeared to me and many others
that it might be possible to overtax gambling
to where you turned to cheating to make
money, and we didn’t want that to occur.
So even the businessmen felt there was a
need for a new tax. I never felt that there
was a need for a new tax because there was
plenty of money coming in if the state didn’t
get into welfare. But by the state taking over
the historic chores of the county and cities
and putting it on a state basis then the state
fell way short of the funds to finance the
statewide welfare program.
How were they taxing gambling prior to 1953?
Each slot machine had a tax, and each
table had a tax. It was in increments and it
changed every time the legislature met, by the
way. But it was a modest tax, and it got up to
about 2% of the gross, then 4% of the gross,
6% of the gross income, and so on. And it was
producing 5 million dollars, 7 million dollars,
12 million dollars. Today its producing over a
hundred million, I guess. Ah, and I thought
there was enough money to carry the state
if they’d stay out of welfare. Stopping these
great welfare spending programs was a full
time job. In fact, they couldn’t be stopped
and they weren’t stopped because they were
participating programs with federal money.
Everybody took the position you’re denying
the state their share of the federal funds if
you don’t institute the program. Because it’s
50% federally funded or 60% or 75%, some
of them were totally federally funded. But
you had. to set up a state organization to
do it. The state bureaucracy... My general
philosophy was to fight this all the way.
This was socialism, the kind which I felt the
communists were pushing hard. The thing
was a matter of some kind of compromise.
Then to top off that, the school system was
getting bogged down. We had the old original
school plants, and this phenomenal growth
was taking place. After the war, the baby
bulge was a tremendous thing, and we just
had to have new school buildings, new school
facilities, new school books. It was a terrible
drain on the state, the counties and the cities.
Because the cities and the counties and the
school districts had historically shared in the
$5.00 constitutional limit of our state. And by
the schools demanding more and more the
cities had to have more, the counties had to
have more; their problems were increasing
the same. So the feeling was in the state that
the schools needed some state support far
beyond anything they’d ever had in the past.
And I agreed with that. My disagreement
was that there wasn’t money enough to do it
without new taxes. Here we were facing a new
tax burden, sales tax or a new income tax or
a new franchise tax of some kind or a much
heavier tax on gambling. And the feeling was,
if you taxed gambling too heavily you’d be so
dependent upon gambling that the gamblers
could call the politics; all the industry in the
state would be at the mercy of gambling;
and nobody wanted that. So the idea was
to put the brakes on gambling tax a little bit
and institute a new tax on the people. And
herein is where the problems started in the
1953 session, and they went on and they’re
still going on.
12
Rodney J. Reynolds
At this time, in the 1953 legislature, your leader
was Governor Russell, a Republican. What
was your relationship with him and how did
he affect the assembly ?
The fact that Governor Russell was a
Republican was of a great help to me and all
the other Republicans from Washoe County.
Appreciate that the entire delegation from
Washoe County was Republican... Except
for one, I believe... A Democrat from Sparks.
Whereas the Clark County delegation was
essentially Democratic with one or two
Republicans. And around the state it was
pretty much Republican except from Ely,
the mining town, there was a Democrat.
So we had a majority of Republicans in the
legislature in ’53 if I recall correctly. No,
we did not have a majority... I can’t recall
correctly. The senate was solid Republican,
not solid but a majority of Republicans pretty
consistently and had been for years. But we
did have a good number of Republicans. We
never were in a majority in the assembly; we
were always a minority party. But Governor
Russell strengthened our hand tremendously.
And I know on several occasions he asked
me to introduce some legislation for him. He
and I had a good relationship. Except for one
particular bill which came up I think in the
’56 or ’57 or ’55 session, I guess it was... the
aid to dependent children.
But getting back to this full growth, I think
in 1953 we appropriated a considerable sum
of money to hire the Peabody Institute which
was a school research organization... back East
I believe ... known as the Peabody Group to
make a study of what we should do in the state
of Nevada education-wise in order to funnel
more state funds into the school districts.
Prior to this, each little school district was
represented by its own school board elected
amongst the people whose children went to
school. I remember Jiggs out of Elko, a little
community with only seven or eight children
who went to school. I had good friends
who were on the school board who literally
knew nothing. They were uneducated men
themselves. They admitted they shouldn’t be
serving on the school board, but there was no
one else to serve. Their main problem was to
hire one teacher. If they got her hired, they
figured their main chores were done. This
sort of thing was becoming pretty archaic.
Plus Vegas and Reno’s school districts were
becoming huge and out of hand. The system
was wrong. So, I think in the next session
then the Peabody people reported back with
the Peabody Report. And they recommended
county consolidation... that of the seventeen
counties in Nevada there could be seventeen
school districts with one or two exceptions.
Eureka and Lander counties were pretty
small counties; Esmeralda hardly had enough
people to make a county. So I think it was
consolidated with Nye and we had sixteen
school districts... all at the county level
except for that one combination. This is what
they recommended. Then to do that there
was a certain amount of money that would
have to be appropriated at the state level to
assist these school districts and help them
get started and help them build buildings
because they wanted to bring up the standards
of the county schools to some decency and a
comparable level to the city schools. The cities
had to have some huge new buildings, high
schools particularly, and it was going to take
a lot of money. I-low would you proportion
it among the various students and the various
school districts of the counties of the state?
This became the problem. So they came up
with taking into consideration the average
daily attendance of the schools. Each teacher/
pupil ratio would be paid so much. So if you
had a country school with only eight students
A Cold War Politician of Nevada in the Fifties
13
and one teacher... whereas Reno or Las Vegas
with a school of 2,000 in a high school and
fifty teachers ... youd have a formula there.
So we came up with the ADA, average daily
attendance formula.
Who were the originators of this?
This was the Peabody Report. I think it
was modified somewhat. The Peabody had
made a study I believe in Utah and Idaho, and
we talked to some of their legislators and their
school people and checked on what Peabody
was reporting to us. The Peabody people were
very efficient and there was good research.
The outgrowth was that we all pretty much
went along with it.
Whose idea was it to bring in this organization?
I think we started first thing in the ’53
legislature; we appropriated some money to
get that started. In a legislative action you
never know who the individual is or if there
is an individual. You get down to have lunch
in a restaurant sometime with four or five
fellas, and they say well let’s get together and
do this. Four or five go back to the legislature
and draw up a bill. Well, no one man did
but four or five did. But we had a couple of
educators in the legislature; I had two or three
children coming along in school; I was close
to the schools. I talked to our Superintendent
of Public Instruction here, Earl Wooster; I
had many meeting with him at length. And
we talked over many of these things; so did
many of the other legislators. And our Reno
delegation, I think, did a commendable
job. We took to the legislature many good,
worthwhile concepts. We picked up from our
experience working with our school people
here, because, after all, Reno had one of the
larger school districts in the state.
Were there any significant lobbyists at this time
for changing the educational system in Nevada?
Oh yes, yes, there were many. This wasn’t
unique to Nevada; this was going on in
many other states. The National Education
Association, the national association for the
teachers, had lobbyists here. We were heavily
lobbied at the Nevada legislature by out of state
lobbyists ... national organizations, national
textbook people, national bureaucrats from
Washington in the federal school system, and
we had the Catholic church school system
and the Mormon church school system, and
the many sects in long operated schools.
These people were here from all over the
Western states and back East too. We asked
for them, we wanted them. We wanted
information; we didn’t want to make a mistake.
It was a comprehensive and massive piece of
legislation because it was going to take forty or
fifty bills, separate bills to be introduced and
passed to make the thing work, to proportion
the money, to select the auditors, the funding
of the thing through the controller’s office,
the legislative council bureau’s drafting and
working of the bills. It was a tremendous
job. And it took much time. It was not all
ironed out. Immediately after the ’53 session,
Governor Russell had to call a special ’54
session to iron out some of our mistakes and
shortcomings of the ’53 session. A couple
voids appeared. We hadn’t tackled it all.
It seems that the biggest problem with this
education bill was financing — whether
gambling tax, property tax, sales tax, or state
income tax. Who were the proponents and
what were the problems with these taxes?
This is the frosting on the cake, of course.
The school system we envisioned could not
be instituted without state money, and the
14
Rodney J. Reynolds
state did not have the money in its coffers or
any way of acquiring it under the present tax
structure, So a whole new tax approach had
to be made. I recall or felt that welfare would
have to take a deep shellacking for a while in
order to furnish money for the schools. Then
later when we built up the treasury, welfare
could get back in the picture. But I think I
was alone in that field; nobody else would go
along with that concept. Generally the outside
lobbyists were pushing a new tax. I think even
the businessmen recognized and realized we
couldn’t continue in the tax base we had in
the past. And they were starting to cave in and
allow the thinking of a new tax. So up jumped
the income tax because that was so popular
at the federal level and many other states. A
state income tax had long been an anathema
to Nevada because our haven for the wealthy
who were here, who had been here, and who
had made our state the excellent place to
live that it had been. Everybody wanted to
protect that facet. We did not like an income
tax. Even the Democrats were not too fond of
it, particularly the conservative Democrats.
So, the income tax looked like it would have
a rough go, so then came the sales tax. Well,
the sales tax is known to be a regressive tax;
every time you sell something you have to add
more on. Ultimately a product might get hurt
because the tax on it would be so high. So a
tax, a sales tax, was tossed around. It wasn’t
easy to come by. But in order to finance the
school system, to spend a lot of money on the
Peabody Report ... the Peabody Report was
in. Everybody was pretty well decided that
the Peabody Report would be adopted. There
was a crush to finance it. In came the bills.
There were many types of sales tax — taxing
on food, not taxing food, taxing utilities like
home utilities like fuel oil and electricity, not
taxing that, taxing automobiles heavily and
liquor extremely heavily, cigarettes heavier
yet, making it very modest on food and all of
these various facets made it tough.
So at this time we’re talking about taxes. Now
Norman Biltz was a large financier of Nevada,
and men like Charlie Mapes or Bill Harrah
had great interests. What sort of tax were they
interested in or agreeable to?
Those were the very people starting a
response or starting to be agreeable to the
sales tax. Now the theory of the sales tax
is that it reaches everybody, the poor man
and the little man as well as the wealthy. The
wealthy man, of course, wants to distribute
the tax base as widely as possible in order for
him to avoid paying an undo share. This part
is fine. I was agreeable to that aspect, but the
aspect I didn’t like is that particularly for the
middle class, the small man, the sales tax is
not deductible from his federal income tax
because he doesn’t keep receipts. A person
goes out and buys an automobile and pays
$200 sales tax on the purchase of a domestic
car not a business car but just for his private
use. He has no way of getting that deduction
out of his income tax for federal purposes.
And here we’re putting a huge tax load on the
people of the state without them benefiting
from the deductions. A man of business buys
a bunch of wire for a home he’s building for
someone; he just adds it to the cost of the
wire, and it is a deductible expense, but the
little man gets hooked on that even though the
federal government allows a little deduction.
It doesn’t allow enough.
What were your constituents asking for? What
were they agreeable to?
The labor people hate and despise the sales
tax because they’re aware of the fact it taxes
the laboring man. It taxes everything they
A Cold War Politician of Nevada in the Fifties
15
buy, and they’re trying to protect the little
people. Their idea is to soak the rich. The rich
man’s idea is not to soak the little man, but to
distribute it widely. So that where you have
the two sides of the coin.
What were your constituents asking for?
I was sort of in the middle on the thing
except that while I despise the income tax,
particularly the progressive income tax, I
despise it vehemently, I was aware of the fact
that the federal government was taking out
of the state of Nevada through its income tax
about $500,000,000 at that time. This is what
the internal revenue service was collecting
and sending to Washington. It occurred
to me that we don’t need a new tax of any
kind. What we need to do is to divert part
of this money that’s going to Washington
back to Nevada. I said if we could tax the
government’s collection we’d have something.
So I started looking around. I didn’t like the
sales tax. As I say, it’s a regressive tax; it hurts
everybody and you don’t get the benefit of
the deduction. I didn’t really feel we needed
a tax despite the fact that school people
were hollering for new money. I saw this
tremendous income from gambling. I saw
this tremendous outgo on welfare which I’m
bitterly opposed to.
What were the local people feeling, the people
in Reno? Were they for a new tax? What were
their feelings? How did your constituents feel?
How do you know? How do you know
what your constituents think? You know
one man, you know another man, you know
what those two think. There’s no way of
judging what your constituents think. They
think largely about what they read in the
newspapers.
What were the newspapers propounding?
The newspapers are liberal. They’ve always
been liberal. They always will be liberal until
something changes. So anything in the form
of socialism the newspapers support.
In Nevada in 1952?
Yes, they were supporting an income tax.
But when the sales tax seemed to be getting
strong impetus, they even went along with the
sales tax. The point was, they were supporting
a new tax. And here I am dedicated to the
prohibition of any new tax. But, if there must
be a tax, I felt that we should short circuit the
tax that was already here, the federal income
tax. I stumbled across the so-called Alaska
Plan. It was the state income tax instituted in
Alaska. And we arrived at this concept.
Who is we?
Myself and the people I was working with
getting this together, a few constituents who
believed like I did.
Who were they?
Ah, Tom Kean, I think, was working
pretty much on that... well, actually, some
old internal revenue people who had retired
... I can’t remember the man’s name now who
had been giving me the information. Anyway,
I’ll take responsibility on it, for it was my
idea, and I was pushing it. If we could short
circuit this federal money through the state
income tax, we’d have something. So, I said
we’ll institute a state income tax based on
the Alaska Plan which is ten percent of what
the federal government collects. You figure
up your federal income tax as if there were
no state tax, and, if it comes to $600 you owe
16
Rodney J. Reynolds
the government, you take ten percent of $60
and you pay that to the state first. Then you
deduct that $60 from your taxable income at
the federal level and you reduce it not the full
$60 but you might reduce it $50. So then only
$10 would go to the federal government and
$50 would go to the state government. And
the individual would only have to pay $10
more. He pays $70 total tax instead of $60.
So it wouldn’t hurt the individual too much.
Would you elaborate upon the Alaska Plan?
The Alaska Plan is an income tax
proportioned upon the federal income tax.
We had the bill drafter write to Alaska and
get a copy of it. I simply introduced that. I
think we changed the rate of taxation a bit
to ten percent, as I recall, to raise the so-
called fifty million dollars that Nevada was
reportedly short. They were short because
of the extensive welfare program build-ups.
The Alaska Plan was an income tax wherein
you computed the federal tax and then took
a percentage of it for the state tax, entered
that, and recomputed your federal tax with
that state deduction.
Well, the principle was that particularly
those in the higher tax bracket... the deduction
to the state was substantial so that their federal
income tax wasn’t so high. Again I say I was
trying to short circuit some of the federal
money that was being drained out of the state.
We estimated that to be about $500,000,000 a
year in those years. I didn’t like an income tax,
I didn’t want an income tax. But it was a way
to counter any other type tax. I knew that an
income tax could not possibly be put through
the legislature. It was a rather malicious and
facetious move on my part in that I introduced
it as rather a political interworking situation
wherein I knew it couldn’t pass, yet I was going
to support it. Supporting my own tax I wasn’t
obligated to vote for anyone else’s tax. That’s
really what it amounts to.
Who were the opponents to this tax?
The business community at large and the
Republican party as a whole were opposed to
any form of income tax because the absence
of an income tax was what Nevada was
advertising and what was attracting wealth.
That together with no tax upon intangibles
such as stocks and bonds and annuities made
Nevada relatively tax free for the relatively
wealthy. This was a great attraction to our state
and was bringing in a considerable number
of high caliber people who we did want. An
income tax would tend to alienate them.
The opposition, of course, we knew would
be a sales tax that the labor people and the
Democrats and the liberals were opposing so
bad. The business community wanted a sales
tax. The liberal-labor community wanted an
income tax, and it put me in the awkward
position of seeming to be on the side of the
labor group and here I was openly opposed
to that segment of our legislature. But it
backfired on me in that when I ran the third
time everyone thought I was advocating an
income tax, and it probably hurt me politically
because my own constituency was sales tax
oriented. But I felt in my heart we didn’t need
any kind of tax. The way to raise money was
to knock off the welfare spending of the state
because our tax base on the ad valorem tax
plus the gambling tax was all the money we
needed to run a state government.
James “Sailor” Ryan, the labor leader at that
time, wanted an increase in gambling tax. How
did you feel about this?
Yes “Sailor” Ryan was a very vociferous
and noisy character from Las Vegas ... being
A Cold War Politician of Nevada in the Fifties
17
a labor union organizer and leader and was
pretty high up in the labor hierarchy... He
was very pro income tax and wanted to tax
the gambling interests too. He was not in
love with gambling although he recognized
what they were doing for the state because
at that time the gaming industry was not
organized. They were trying to organize it
even in those days. He was pretty mad at
the gaining industry and was for taxing the
heck out of them. The rest of us knew that
if we taxed gaining too heavily we could
hurt it, drive it underground, or drive it
into crooked manipulations and cheating,
and we didn’t want to do that. Legitimate
gamblers in the state were quite willing to
pay a reasonable tax, but they couldn’t afford
an excessive tax more than anybody else
could.
Did the casino owners and gamblers have a
large influence in Carson City at this time, a
large lobby group, that is?
No, not really. The gaming industry in
Nevada at that time was a pretty up and up,
honest, sincere, and decent group of people.
They were dominated by the Reno interests
considerably though there were two or three
casinos in Vegas.
Who were the Reno interests?
The Reno interests were Raymond I.
Smith from Harold’s Club, Bill Harrah from
Harrah’s Club, and there were some smaller
casinos at the time. The Palace Club, the Bank
Club, which was coming to an end, but they
were pretty decent and respectable people as
a whole.
Certainly they must have had some lobby
groups in Carson City.
They had lobbyists there, yes. They
had an association and the secretary of the
association was there constantly. But they
didn’t have a great vote. They had money
behind them, but they didn’t exercise it
wildly. They didn’t interfere in politics too
much as long as politics were such that
they could exist and politics wasn’t causing
them any trouble. All businessmen in the
state recognized what gambling was doing
for Nevada. We were so thankful to have
gaming income as well as other income
that it had wide support. They didn’t have
to have a potent lobby group, but they were
there for information purposes because
the gambling industry is an intricate and
sophisticated industry that the average man
knows nothing about. And certainly as an
assemblyman I wasn’t knowledgeable about
the inner workings of gambling and how
much tax it could bare. Although, after four
years I did know a good deal about it. During
one of our sessions, I forget which one it
was now, the Las Vegas interests invited the
entire legislature down there for what we
called a lost weekend... all on the house. We
went down on a National Guard airplane as I
recall. The governor went with us. The entire
legislature went, I think, plus the press corps.
We stayed two or three days in the hotels and
had all our board and room and plenty to
drink, free. It was an informative weekend.
We met all the owners of’ the gaining
businesses there, and they took us around
and showed us in the daytime a few of the
outlying communities such as Henderson
... and what was happening there since the
war and the conversion of Henderson into
private industry. It was most informative.
I came back more knowledgeable about it,
despite the fact that at times it was a kind
of wild party, particularly the night sessions
with free entertainment.
18
Rodney J. Reynolds
Governor Charles Russell called a special
session in 1954, the first special session in
twenty-seven years. The reason for this was
financing education. What happened during
that special session?
I can’t recall to any great extent exactly what
the problems were. They were ramifications of
oversights in our original legislation the year
before with the Peabody formula trying to be
adopted, and there were a couple of voids that
showed up that made it totally unworkable.
It had to do with the disbursement of the
various funds to the various schools on the
basis of student enrollment plus the teachers.
As I recall we mishandled the teacher
situation. We had to take into consideration
the number of students enrolled plus the
teachers. As I recall this was the number of
students in daily attendance plus the number
of teachers that had to be on hand to take
care of that. And if the teachers were on duty
and the children didn’t show, you still had
to pay the teachers. So we had to modify
the disbursement formula a little bit to take
care of that. In a small school with say only
three teachers — and it was expected that all
three teachers would be needed there and
yet perhaps one of the entire classes didn’t
show up that day — you still had to pay that
teacher because you called her. And this
happens quite often when there’s an epidemic
or disease situation. Unquestionably we’re
trying to balance out the class/teacher ratio,
so we don’t have huge classes with only one
teacher and then one teacher with only a few
students. We were trying to balance it out
with only twenty-five to thirty students per
day for each teacher, as I recall. There were
two or three things like that that necessitated
a special session, Furthermore, the funds
that we had created to finance the schooling
were going to be delayed six months to nine
months, as I recall. Property tax valuations
are always a year late. You collect in one year
the assessments that were set up the previous
year. They’re always late coming in. And to
institute a new expenditure that is effective
immediately, you must remember that the
taxes to pay for it are going to be a year late.
I think we had to make some special general
fund disbursements in that special session.
Nevada was witnessing an incredible growth
rate at this time.
Yes, they were. I recall at this time we
were getting this postwar baby boom. It
was coming out in the lower grades of the
grade schools; it hadn’t hit the high schools
or colleges yet, but we knew it was coming
soon. It was kind of like watching an ostrich
swallow a coconut. You could see it start
down its throat, and little by little it went
on down until it got to the body. The young
body at that time was the university. At this
time classroom space and teachers for the
primary grades were real critical, because of
this postwar baby boom which was about an
eight to ten year extension. And you could
just see that group of babies move through
the school system.
How well .informed was the average
assemblyman at this time as far as taxes
go? Did you have tax experts come in and
help you understand the situation or was it
strictly original research by the assemblymen
themselves?
Well, there was a small nucleus of
assemblymen that did delve into the
educational programs of the country and
in various other states, but none of us were
experts on it, We did have many experts who
were there from universities, and I think
A Cold War Politician of Nevada in the Fifties
19
the education lobby itself which is always a
potent lobby The average legislator cannot
be knowledgeable in everything. And if it
weren’t for professional lobbyists and experts
in their particular field no legislation in this
state could possibly function. I do entirely
approve of the facts and figures that dedicated
and detailed experts are able to furnish to a
legislature.
The March 6, 1953 Territorial Enterprise says
about the state income tax, “It was childish
legislation proposed in the lower house and
aimed at placating the state’s most arrogant
yet completely expendable minority pressure
group, the school block.”Now this is an extreme
view. How did you feel about this school block?
Did you think they were positive in asking for
their reasons?
Yes. The school block is a very potent
group because they do represent literally
everybody in the state; they represent every
child; they represent every parent, they’d like
to claim. They represent all the teachers. In
fact, they represent the general population,
but the leaders of these school groups are
thinking their own thoughts. They have
no more way of judging what the general
population thinks than does a legislator or
any other individual man. But they take the
position that they do know; and, therefore,
they are arrogant, positive, and vociferous.
They’re there constantly, and they seem to
be well financed. I have long looked with a
jaundiced eye upon some of the legislative
lobbying groups from education.
What are some of your personal recollections of
members of the assembly at that time?
That is a matter of opinion. I don’t suppose
any two men in the legislature would agree
completely upon the type of people their fellow
legislators are or were, but the legislature, the
assembly at least, was a broad cross section of
our society, and it’s probably well it was that.
How some of the men got elected I will never
know. We had two that literally could not read
or write beyond sign their own name and read
the amounts on their paycheck. They could not
read the bills; they could not understand the
words; and to my knowledge they could not
make a speech to explain their own position.
Not that they were bad sort of fellas. We were
all so sympathetic to them that we all kind
of went along with them. Many hours were
spent explaining things to these men. On the
other hand, there were various astute people
in the assembly, lawyers and businessmen who
were well educated and highly informed. The
legislature as a whole is not a very aristocratic
group of people. They are famous in their
own community for some specific reason ...
maybe one became famous because he married
somebody’s daughter that was prominent
therefore he could be elected. But, by in large,
I was extremely disappointed with the caliber
of people in the legislature. Knowing that I was
not well qualified myself, I felt that certainly I
would be at the bottom of the list and everybody
else there would be more knowledgeable than I
was, but I was in for a rude awakening. I found
myself perhaps in the so-called upper group,
but the average legislator is a disappointment I
think to the public, but who knows. You don’t
know what a man is until after he’s in office
and he starts to perform, and the legislature
is no exception. I found it disconcerting to
be there with people who were so bigoted,
such hypocrites, such a lack of intelligence
and education particularly — not that that’s
everybody. We had a few very good men.
Were some of the proposals passed by the
backroom method, by working through political
20
Rodney J. Reynolds
hacks and so forth, working with special interest
outside of the assembly itself? Did members get
together and decide they would pass this bill for
special reasons?
Well, yes. There are always special interests,
and certain special interests maintained their
man in the legislature at all times. It’s long
been known that there are railroad interests,
and the railroad did go to no end of trouble
to see that at least a few in the legislature
were definitely pro-railroad, whether they
were Democrats or Republicans was of no
importance. There was always a railroad lobby
there. And the labor group, of course, always
had several strong pro-labor men, openly
pro-labor, labor leaders, labor organizers,
and a powerful lobby working with them.
There were backroom manipulations in each
of those groups, and they would come forth
with a bill that the members would know
nothing about until it hit the floor. Sometimes
they would try to whiz them through without
adequate study. Generally they were slowed
down. A pretty good look was taken. But
many times the bills did get through because
many members did not understand them. If a
fellow Democrat did not understand a bill one
of his colleagues had introduced, he’d go along
with him anyway whether he understood it or
not simply because of the politics of the thing.
This is one of the crimes of the legislative
process really. Such a wide disparity and such
a wide field of bills introduced, six hundred
or eight hundred introductions all the way
from angleworms and fishing worms to air
space for aircraft. There is just no end to all
the problems that face society, and they’re all
introduced in the legislature sooner or later.
As a motel owner and assemblyman at one
point you attacked the Reno City Council on the
housing issue. They were trying to build public
housing in 1953. What are your recollections
of this event?
I believe my involvement in that particular
hassle in the city of Reno was responsible
for my running for the legislature. It was
probably responsible for my being elected to
the legislature. Most of this public housing and
urban renewal and housing for the indigents
and downtrodden was emanating from
Washington. The local people did not want it.
We had people here with much rental property,
and this cheap rental housing financed by the
federal government participated in by the state
in a minor way would tend to wreck the rent
structure. That’s exactly the way I felt about it
... and that Reno was well able to take care of
its own housing problems. Private industry
would provide the housing when there was
an opportunity to make a profit. It didn’t really
matter if they were cheap cabins or exclusive
castles; industry will provide what the demand
demands. It may be a few years late getting
caught up, and sometimes there’s a little over
building, but to have the federal government
interfere just because somebody in Washington
felt there must be some people in Reno who
weren’t well housed was an anathema to most
of us. It certainly was to me. The city council
seemed to be taking the position they ought
to be getting this federal money in to Reno
no matter what happened. The whole thing
was ridiculous in my book, still is. I think this
was largely responsible for my being elected
because I campaigned on that issue pretty
strongly in all three of my runnings.
At this time Nevada was, in a sense, sticking
up for states’ rights vs. the huge federal
bureaucracy. At this time in 1953 did the
average assemblyman and the average citizen
feel that the federal government was growing
at too fast of a rate and too large?
A Cold War Politician of Nevada in the Fifties
21
Yes, definitely. The average man on
the street was convinced that the federal
government was not getting out of its wartime
powers like it should. For instance rent control.
Getting back to the housing. One of the first
war regulations we had to enjoy. The idea
was that when the war was over theyd take
off rent control, and they were several years
relieving us from rent control after the war
was over. And most people didn’t like that.
But government is always reluctant to give up
any of its powers of the federal bureaucracies.
These great bureaucracies had been created to
handle these wartime problems. They didn’t
want to dissolve. And states’ rights is really
the issue all right. Every state in the union had
the same problem. A specific instance of my
getting involved in that housing thing evolved
into a TV program in which the mayor at
the time was Len Harris. His housing urban
renewal, I think, was actually the problem. But
there was public housing woven into the fabric.
There was Jay Baker. They were both friends
of mine, in a sense. We went on TV when one
of the stations requested us. They explained
their side. It was a debate. They explained their
side of the problem, and I explained mine.
We got into a real Donnybrook right on TV.
Mayor Harris accusing me of violating the
Republican faith and opposing Senator Robert
A. Taft because Taft was for urban renewal.
I took the position that Taft was for a few
urban renewal units as opposed to hundreds
of thousands of urban renewal units, and he
was trying to break it down in Washington just
like I was in Reno. But Mayor Harris made me
kind of mad saying that I was revolting from
the Republican tenets just because Taft was
involved. Jay Baker who was there with him
... Jay and I have become pretty good friends
... but at the time I was disgusted with both of
them. We had quite a hot TV session, and I
guess the public liked it.
TV at this time was relatively new as a device
for spreading the word, a new sort of news
media. Was it used widely during this time in
1953?
Yes, all politicians were turning to TV
pretty heavily, and we were no exception
here in Reno. The stations did not have very
elaborate program set-up at that time, so they
were hungry for any sort of debate they could
create of local interest. We were frequently
asked to appear, and always when we were
running we’d appear two or three times.
Of course, some of the boys paid for TV
advertising. I don’t think I ever did. I stayed
with a few ads in the newspapers and that was
about the extent of my paying for advertising.
What were the most significant items on the
agenda in the 47th session of the legislatures?
The 47th session was in 1955. This was
the second time I ran and was elected. I
think perhaps the hottest issue that time
was the gambling bill. We still had a lot of
the education problem to clean up form
the previous session, but the new and most
important... because of the heavy taxes that
were starting to be imposed upon gaining ...
and the ’53 and special session did impose
some new taxes on gaming and the rate was
getting pretty high and the federal government
was stepping into gambling tax, believe it or
not... with a $50 a machine tax as I recall. Up
to this time the Nevada State Tax Commission
had been administering the gambling licenses
for the entire state. The Nevada State Tax
Commission had been set up many, many
years before to administer the tax distribution
amongst the counties and to collect the state’s
part of the ad valorem tax. One of the big
chores, of course, was to tax the railroads.
They had been given this gambling tax as
22
Rodney J. Reynolds
they were a tax commission, but gambling
was such a disparate industry from anything
previous... entirely different from agriculture
... entirely different from the ad valorem tax...
entirely different from the railroad problems
or mining ... that they felt there should be a
new gaming commission with great authority
to control, police, administer, and collect the
tax from the gaming industry to see that we
didn’t get any bad guys in the state that were
known to be bad in other states and to fairly
collect the tax and see that everybody paid
... and that the whole thing was equitable.
Well, we had nothing to go on at this time,
for no other state in the union had legalized
gambling. We were unique in that respect, and
it was a devil of a problem. But we sat down,
and I would say that we probably did more
basic research and original thinking there
than on any other single piece of legislation. I
know I finally wound up on one of the house
compromise committees between the senate
and the assembly. I sat with Newt Crumley
and George Von Tobel, I believe. George was
from Vegas... with Senator Gallagher from Ely
... and I can’t recall the others on that... but
there had been several committees attempting
to write a bill that would be amenable to both
the house and the senate. And it couldn’t be
done. Those who felt if you gave one man or
a small group of men too much power they
would abuse it, and there would be great
bribery in the industry. Well, there’s always
that possibility, and yet if you had a large group
controlling it, there couldn’t be any effective
administration. So, I took the position and
I agreed pretty much with Newt Crumley ...
and Newt had a gambling establishment in
Elko at that time ... he was senator from Elko
County and had been a leader in bringing in
entertainment to the state... we looked to him
for some new ideas in gaming, and he had a
few. He said let’s set up an institution that if
they don’t like the way a man combs his hair,
he won’t get a licensee I said it feel that that
is the way it should be too. Let them have
absolute control because gaming is here by
a permissiveness. It is an allowed thing. It is
not a right, an inherent right of anybody to
gamble or to set up a gambling institution. It is
permissive legislation, and we can permit just
so much and no more. But there were those,
particularly form Vegas, who wanted it a little
more lax because Vegas was growing so fast
they were afraid that the north end of the state
would tend to cool the growth in the southern
end of the state. This is not true. There might
have been a little of that innuendo in the
background, but our problem was to keep
thugs out, Detroit gangster types from getting
in to Las Vegas. I was pretty sure they wouldn’t
get in to Reno because our present gamblers
here were policing themselves carefully, but
in Vegas there were no old line, loyal gaming
institutions, and anybody could get into Vegas
who had the money to build a new hotel. It
had to be watched very, very closely. As a
matter of fact, we did set up the first gaming
control board, the first gaming commission
in that ’55 legislature, I think.
You were on the public institutions committee,
what were your duties on this committees?
Well, essentially, the committee had been
established to watch over all of the various
state institutions, like the industrial school,
the state mental hospital and the state prison,
those institutions that were administered by
the state. It was an important committee.
I recall one particular instance when
Governor Russell called me down to his
office and said, “Rod, you’re on the public
institutions committee.” And I said, “Yes.”
He said, “I’m going to ask you a favor.” And I
said, “Well, go ahead governor, I’ll be glad to
A Cold War Politician of Nevada in the Fifties
23
help.” He said, “We’re having trouble with Dr.
Tillim, the administrator of the state hospital
in Sparks.” I said, “Oh, really? I know Dr.
Tillim quite well, I visit with him often.” He
is interested in some legislation here; I had
a conference with him just the other day.”
He said, “Well, I know that and I thought
you might know him that’s why I’m asking
you to do this, We feel that Dr. Tillim is a
good doctor by gosh but he’s been giving us
nothing but trouble, in his administration
of the hospital as far as letting us know
how much money he needs, when he needs
it, how he’s spent it, his travel allotments,
and his travel allowances are grossly out of
order. He takes off, leaves the state and will
stay a week. It may be worthwhile and a
necessary trip but we don’t know why he is
gone.” And he said, “We’d like to set up at the
hospital to handle these reports, because he
is causing the controller no end of trouble.
Fred Dressier here is a member of the mental
hospital committee and he keeps telling me
that, and the others of the committee too that
Dr. Tillim is awfully hard to work with in
the detailed administration end of it. I said,”
Well, I wouldn’t be surprised myself, I kind
of feel that way too, but I didn’t know these
kind of conditions existed. He said, “I’d like
to have you. study these problems here and
check with my staff out front about the kind
of problems they’re having with Dr. Tillim. I’d
like to have you introduce a bill then setting
up, we have one drawn up here, setting up a
business manager, and letting Dr. Tillim be in
absolute control as far as the medical facet of it
is concerned. But get him out of the financial
part and the business administration.” I think
I said, “That’s the part he likes the best.” He
said, “Well, that’s just the problem, we know
he does but he’s not well versed in how to do
it. “I thought the governor was reasonable
about it and Fred Dressier told me stories
about the things they had had with Dr. Tillim.
He’s a good psychiatrist and we needed him
but I’ll never forget I was kind of shocked that
the governor had asked me to do that when it
was my own institution, in our own backyard
there in Washoe and I knew Dr. Tillim so well.
I had been supporting the man because of his
medical approach, I didn’t know about these
business things. But the governor gave me
the bill and I took it up there and introduced
it. When it hit the floor, boy the far did fly.
Dr. Tillim was over bright and early the next
morning. And the pow wow was started. But
that is the way our legislature is. We finally did
get it through; we had to modify it some. The
business manager didn’t get as much power as
the governor wanted, because Dr. Tillim had
the final say so. I think that was all right or at
least for the transition period.
During the 47th session there was a bill
introduced on the University of Nevada
financing that institution, did you have any
dealings with that bill?
Well, I remember that we had some
terrible rhubarbs with the University. Let me
think a minute of the personalities involved
there.
Yes, there was some mention of the president
of the university and a legislator.
The president of the university at that
time was Minard Stout. Yes, I recall that
escapade. I think just the year before this
and possibly two years before this Dr. Stout
had come to Nevada to be president after a
long interim period after Dr. Clark resigned...
died. They had no president; they just had
an administrator temporarily appointed.
Dr. Stout was brought in from the Midwest
with high recommendations though he had
24
Rodney J. Reynolds
never been president of a university before.
He’d been director of a high school an
accelerated high school of some kind I think
in Wisconsin, or Minnesota. This was his first
venture as the president of the university He
was a little nervous in his job and he had sort
of an arrogant air about him. He tended to
talk down to people; it was hard for him to sit
down quietly and smoke his pipe, so to speak,
and to discuss a subject without becoming
all flustered and irritated and half angry and
take a high and mighty approach. He was very
difficult to work with; it was just a mannerism
with the man; I think he was sincere and tried
to do the job but he couldn’t get himself over.
I remember Gary Adams, one of our fellow
legislators, a young man, one of the youngest
men in the house I believe Gary had been a
gold medal student just a few years before.
He was A1 Adams’ son, Gray Reid and Wright
Adamses. He was a fine young man, newly
married. He was a brilliant boy but greatly
inexperienced himself, and strange as it may
seem somewhat of the same mannerism as
Dr. Stout. But he disapproved of many of the
things Dr. Stout was doing. And one of the
problems Gary was talking about was a small
Board of Regents holding closed sessions
with Dr. Stout. He was getting his way it
seemed 100%. Gary tried to get into some of
the regents meetings and couldn’t get in. So
darned if he didn’t introduce a bill to expand
the board’s members, from five to eleven men
and to hold open meetings that anyone could
get into. Dr. Stout came over and I remember
we had a meeting one night that went on till
midnight with Gary questioning Dr. Stout.
Stout was not an old man himself, I don’t think
but he was over 40 and Gary was about twenty
five, and it was a real piece of entertainment. I
don’t recall what came out of it, but I believe
the bill did increase the number of regents
but not as many as Gary wanted. We did
increase it some and get a clause in to make
public meetings announced in advance so
citizens could get to the meetings if they had
something they were interested about the
university. The university was going through
trying times then, for of course it was growing
to and the plant had become rather run down
during the war and they needed an awful lot
of money. It seemed exorbitant at the time
in relation to what they had been asking for
in the past. But the institution was growing,
and there was a strange thing., there was
apparently a need in Las Vegas for a three year
junior college down there. And that subject
came up when the university here in Reno
was demanding huge amounts of funds. And
of course the Vegas delegation wanted to get
that college started down there.
One of your more famous bills that you
introduced into the assembly and one that was
passed was the license plate bill. Where did you
get your idea from?
Yes, I was interested in that having been
born and reared in the state and coming from
Elko County then moving to Washoe County.
This came about essentially from my being in
the motel business, we are very conscious of
license plates; that is how we can tell a tourist
from a local person by the license plate on his
car. Strange as it may seem we usually treat
Californians differently than somebody from
Illinois or New York or Pennsylvania because
we know basically that they are different kinds
of people. It’s just a little idiosyncrasy from the
business that you pick up. I thought it would
be nice if you knew the Nevada cars and what
county they are from, as the people of the
various counties moved around. And there
was a pride in each county in their own cars
and their own registration... how much taxes
they were generating in the automobile fund. I
A Cold War Politician of Nevada in the Fifties
25
thought it would be a good idea, and they were
starting to use letters as well as numbers on
the license plates because the number system
was getting too big. So I went to the motor
vehicle department. Marvin Humphrey was
director of the thing at that time, and I was
surprised to find out that he was agreeable to
the same idea. And we sat down, and he and I
and one of his staff members quickly designed
a lettering system that would fit. We had to
be careful that we didn’t get a county ending
in I mixed up with the number one or an 1,
so we let White Pine be WP and Elko be El.
All of the counties would have two letters
then the various numbers. But because of
the huge registration of Clark and Washoe
counties, we could only use one letter, so we
made W for Washoe and C for Clark. I was
rather surprised, because up to that time I
had introduced no legislation at all that had
come near passing, and this whipped through
unanimously without a dissenting vote. I
just accidentally tapped the consensus of the
legislature as well as that of the state. I was
amazed at the publicity I got out of it because
I didn’t consider it a very important bill.
In general, the decade of the 1950’s in Nevada
saw Nevada as the fastest growing state in the
union, saw Nevada have the youngest average
age group than any other state, saw Nevada
bank assets double, saw a high per capita
income. In other words, there was a big money
boom, there was a housing boom, and of course
all of these education problems were tied in
with this growth. Did you feel that you were
an up and coming state in 1953, that you were
going to grow, and did the legislature want to
help this growth?
Oh, yes I was in business at that time and
looking forward to great things. We were all
going to be millionaires shortly. It was a time
of taking chances, taking more risks than
you normally would. Growth means inflation
somewhat, property values were going up. It
was a good feeling, it was fun to be in business.
It was a devil of a time to be in the
legislature because of the problems all of
this was creating: from a judicial standpoint
and an administrative standpoint, for the
governor and the various state departments.
We didn’t have a computer system, we had
old archaic offices that had to be expanded, it
was a very trying time. There were some very
astute men, particularly in the senate who
guided the thing. I think we were blessed with
pretty good governors as a whole. Governor
Russell I felt was an extremely good governor,
because he was so easy to know, so easy
to talk to, so easy to approach. He had no
preconceived ideas that he would hang on to
no matter what, so if they needed something
rather than cause a ruckus he’d go along with
them. Governor Carville had been governor
just a few years before that. He was a loyal
Nevadan and a very understanding man; he’d
been a good governor. Vail Pittman, I’d think,
was probably the least able, but he was a loyal
Nevadan too. Vail Pittman was a Democrat,
but they were in. Ted Carville was a Democrat
too, but he called himself a Dixiecrat; he was
a conservative Democrat. Dick Kerman was
one of the state’s leading bankers in those
formative years. We had a series of good
governors. In fact, I don’t think we’ve had a
real bad one. Pittman was the worst, but then
he wasn’t bad.
You mentioned there were several leaders in
the senate at this time, pretty influential people.
Who were some of these peoples?
The father of the senate, one of the oldest
and continuous senators was Fred Settelmeyer
from Gardnerville/Minden, a conservative
26
Rodney J. Reynolds
area. Fred was a Dutchman, a German, a
very astute man ... a kind and courteous
man, a highly knowledgeable man. He read
consistently and knew his way around. He
was an old man then. Senator Gallagher from
Ely was a knowledgeable man ... a man who
made it a point to continue his reading and
stay up-to-date with things. These were all
older men at that time. There were a couple
of fine young men from Las Vegas. Mahlon
Brown was a Democrat, a new senator about
the time I went to the assembly. He was an
attorney and a fine fellow; he fit right in very
well. We had a lieutenant governor, Rex Bell,
during one of our sessions. He was a famous
personality, but Rex was a fine fellow. He
was not a native Nevadan, but he was loyal
to Nevada; he loved Nevada. He was a good
politician, and he got along well with the
Democrats. Just prior to Rex Bell we had
Cliff Jones. We had Cliff Jones who was a
young and up and coming fellow from Las
Vegas. He kind of got himself in trouble in
later years, but the time he was lieutenant
governor and the president of the senate he
was very effective and got along well. The
senate in those days was one man from each
county. The cow counties had fifteen votes,
Washoe had one, and Clark had one. So there
was no great domination of the state by the
two population centers. I always thought that
was good because the cow counties tend to
stabilize some of these ambitious ideas that
were emanating from Reno and Las Vegas.
What were your relations with M. E.
McCuiston, Speaker of the Assembly ?
Ted McCuiston became speaker of the
assembly through rather a fluke. I don’t know
how many times this has happened in the
past. We had in the ’53 assembly what we
called a coalition assembly. There was such a
wild rampant group of labor leading liberals
in the Democratic party vs. a substantial
conservative, down to earth Democrats led
by Cyril Bastian and Ted McCuiston. Ted was
from Elko and Cyril Bastian was from Lincoln
County, Hiko ... very fine men ... they were
Democrats but they were conservatives. Arid
here was this wild labor bunch led by Sailor
Ryan, Bill Embry, and that ilk from Clark
County and the southern part of the state;
even the Democrats couldn’t stand them.
So these conservative Democrats made an
approach to us Washoe and northern state
Republicans ... could we coalesce with you to
vote in the officers of the assembly to prevent
Ryan and that clique of wild jackasses from
Las Vegas from running the whole legislature
this year. We said why sure. We’ll vote with
you if you will let us have a representative
seat on these committees. And they said
we will. As Democrats we can’t let you have
a chairmanship. We’ll be chairmen, but
we’ll only have one more Democrat than
Republican on the committees. And we’ll
elect a conservative Democrat to be speaker
of the house and not a wild one from the labor
ranks of Las Vegas. If we don’t coalesce, we’re
pretty sure Sailor Ryan will become speaker
or Bill Embrey will be. So we went entirely
through that session with a coalition set up
of a few conservative Democrats coalesced
with the total Republicans and were able to
out vote the liberals. And Ted McCuiston
became the speaker out of that. He never
would have made it out of his own party
alone. We Republicans voted him in.
Did this conflict with Sailor Ryan originate
from the “Yellow Dog Bill,” the right to work
bill?
Somewhat, not exclusively. That was one
of the many ramifications. Labor has always
A Cold War Politician of Nevada in the Fifties
27
got a multitude of wild, wild things. Common
sites was a hot issue even then. It always is in
any state legislature. The right to work bill was
part of it. Even though the public had voted
in the right to work, they wanted to change
it at the legislative level. It wasn’t only that...
Original Index:
For Reference Only
In order to standardize the design of all UNOHP transcripts for the online database, they have
been reformatted, a process that was completed in early 2012. This document may therefore differ
in appearance and pagination from earlier printed versions. Rather than compile entirely new
indexes for each volume, the UNOHP has made each transcript fully searchable electronically. If
a previous version of this volume existed, its original index has been appended to this document
for reference only. A link to the entire catalog can be found online at http://oralhistory.unr.edu/.
30
Rodney J. Reynolds
A
Adams, Gary, 53
Alaska, Finance Plan, 34, 35
Allen, 3, 4
Clark, Walter, 52
Crumley, Newton, 48, 49
B
Badt, Gertrude Nitze, 4
Badt, Milton, 4
Baker, J., 46
Bank Club, 37
Banking, 12
Bastian, Cyril, 58
Bell, Rex, 57
Biltz, Norman,
Boulder D
Brussar 1, 16
Carville, Ted, 56
Cattle, 2
Civilian Conservation Corps,
1-3, 4
Chamber of Commerce-Reno,
15-17, 20
Democratic Party, 4, 5, 30,
35, 43, 58, 59
Depression, 1, 4, 5-10,
20
Divorce Trade,
Dressier,
ion, Public, 24, 26,
7, 36 , 38, 39-41, 47
Elko, City of, 1, 4, 49
Elko, County of, 2, 4, 49, 54
Ely, 2, 25
Embry, William, 58
Fort Churchill, 1,2, 3
G
Gallagher, Charles D., 48, 57
Gaming, 22-24, 29, 32, 36-37,47
Original Index: For Reference Only
31
Gaming Control Board, 49-50
Getchell, Noble, 12, 14, 18
Gray, Les, 19, 20
Gray Reid and Wright C., 53
Growth, Nevadan, 22
Lerude, Leslie, 21
License Plates, 54, 55
Lobbying, Legislative, J6, 37
Lovelock, Forest, 11
M
H
Harrah, William, 31 , 37
Harris,Leonard, 46
Highways, Nevada State Dept.,
3. 7. 8
Hiko, Lincoln County, 58
Hospital, Nevada State, 5
52
Housing, Public
Humphrey
, Marsh, 11
Jones,Clifford, A., 58
Mapes, Charles, 31
McCarran, Pat, 17 ,
McCuiston,
McDermi
Association,
National Education Assoc., 28
Newpapers, Local, 33 , 38 , 47
Orovada, 7
K
Kean, Thomas, 33
Kidding, Allen, 7
Kirman, Richard, 3» 57
L
Labor, Organized, 4-5, 35, 36,
59
Las Vegas, 2, 11, 27, 28, 38
49, 54, 58, 59
Palace Club, 37
Paradise Hill, 7
Peabody Educational Advisory
Group, 26-27, 30, 38
Pittman, Key, 14
Pittman, Vail, 14, 15, 57
Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania, 7
Politics, 11, 20, 21-25
32
Rodney J. Reynolds
R
Railroads, 4, 43
Railroaders, 2
Reno, 2, 3 , 6 , 9, 10,
11 - 13 , 27 , 44
Reno, City Council, 44
Republican Party, 4-5, 12,
18 , 21 , 25 , 43 , 58
Reynolds, Patricia, 8
Riverside Hotel, 13
Robbins, John E., 1, 4, 5
Roosevelt, F.D., 1, 13 , 14, 18
Rotary, Club, 13 , 20
Taft, Robert A., 46
Taxes,
22 , 23, 24, 29, 30, 31, 32,
3^ * 36 , 39, 40, 47, 48
Territorial Enterprise ,
~~£l
Tilli.m, Sidney, 50-52
Tourism, 9 , 20 , 58-9
Univ€
la, 52, 54
Russell, Charles,
50, 51, 56
Ryan, "
layer , Fred, 57
Sheep, 2
Silver State Lodge, 9 , 10
Smith Valley, 8
Socialism, 19 , 20
Soil Conservation Service, 8
Southworth Tobacco Co., 11
Sparks, 8 , 25, 50
State Park Service, 1-6
Stout, Minard, 52, 53
Tobel, George, 48
Walker, Edward, 16
Walker, Margaret, 8
War, World II, 12, 13
Welfare, 19, 23 , 25, 34, 36
Western Pacific Railroad, 2,5
Wigwam Coffee Shop, 21
Wingfield, Family, 12, 13 ,
14-17, 18
Winnemucca, 7
Wooster, Earl, 28
Young, Clifton, 1 . 9 , 20
Young Turk, Movement, 18-20
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